Donald Trump is
absolutely correct when he says the main stream news media lies, purveys fake
news, and is the enemy of the American people. The organizations he banned from
the White House informal "gaggle" -- The New York Times, L.A. Times,
CNN, etc., are all guilty as charged. But the organizations not banned by
Trump, CBS, NBC, Fox, ABC, One America News Network, The Wall Street Journal,
McClatchy, Breitbart and Washington Times are equally guilty.

The problem with
Trump's denunciations of the lies and fake news spread by the corporate media
is not that they are false, but that he has given the wrong reasons.

His accusations
are based on their criticisms of him and his policies. All they would have to
do is give him some flattering coverage and all would be well.

There is a more
honest politician who also shows that the corporate media are liars, purveyors
of fake news, and the enemy of the American people, although he does not use
the intemperate (though accurate) language of Trump. That politician is Senator
Bernie Sanders and his charges are detailed in his recent book Our
Revolution.

He opens his
chapter on the Media ("Corporate Media and the Threat to Our
Democracy" with a quote from A.J. Liebling (1904-1963: a famous journalist
at The New Yorker from 1935 to 1963): "Freedom of the press is
guaranteed only to those who own one."

The basic point
of this chapter is this. Almost all the "news" and information the
American people read, hear or see comes from the corporate media which is run
in the interest of profit making and not with any overly solicitous concern
with the truth or in being objective. The news is filtered to support the
interests of the rich and powerful and the interests of the vast majority of
the American are ignored and the issues that concern them are either not
reported or under reported, or falsely reported. The media also shapes the way
people think, and the values they believe they have arrived at on their own are
actually implanted in them from a life time of media propaganda from the
corporate Establishment [reinforced by the education system and religion].

In other words
the corporate media lies to us to get us to accept the world outlook of the 1%,
publishes fake news to make itself and its system look good (especially it's
class controlled political system and elections) and since the corporate media
manipulates the "news" to further its own interests, the interests of
Wall Street and corporate America at the expense of the American people who are
kept in ignorance of what is really going on, they are, indeed, the enemy of
the American people.

All this can be
summed up by another quote from A.J. Liebling -- one not used by Sanders but
one I am sure he would also like: "People everywhere confuse what they
read in newspapers with news."

I will now append
some quotes from Sanders' chapter to substantiate my summation of his views
above and then draw some conclusions concerning the veracity of Trump's
statements with respect to the media. The numbered sentences are all direct
quotes.

1. Media shapes
our political consciousness, and informs us as to the scope of what is
"realistic" and "possible."

2. In other
words, it is time for the American people to understand that corporate media in
America is not some kind of "objective" entity that sees its function
as providing, as best it can, "truth" to its viewers, listeners, and
readers"

3. Today as a result
of massive mergers and takeovers, six corporations control 90 percent of what
we see, hear, or read. [Comcast, News Corp, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner, CBS:
And they tell you what they want you to know and believe: the "truth"
is what they say it is.]

4. The current
media situation in America, where a handful of giant corporations controls the
flow of information, is a very serious threat to our democracy.

To be clear:
those who threaten the democracy of the American people are the enemies of the
American people. These 6 corporations, the Sinful 6, are the ones flooding us
with fake news, alternate facts, and propaganda designed to further their
profits and the interests of the 1%. They want us to believe the threats to our
democracy come from the Russians and Putin, the Chinese, the Iranians, the
North Koreans, immigrants, anti-capitalists, radical Islam, Palestinian and
other terrorists, and all the time it's the Sinful 6 themselves who are the
greatest threat because they distort and warp all the information about these
other groups, but our domestic problems as well, so that 90 percent of us don't
understand what they are really like and whether they are real or imaginary
problems and threats. The Sinful 6 are responsible for Trump being the president,
for Clinton not Bernie being the Democratic candidate, for Bush's wars in the
Middle East, and for the abysmal ignorance of the American people about the
world outside of the U.S. and of the history of their own country.